INTRODUCTION TO

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
FOR IT & NON-IT PROFESSIONALS
FOUNDATIONS OF AI
• Disciplines that contributed ideas, viewpoints, and techniques to AI.
• In general, one is forced to concentrate on a small number of people,
events, and ideas and to ignore others that also were important.
• History: Organized around a series of questions.
• Not Exhaustive list.
• Note, however, that the not all disciplines have been working toward
AI as their ultimate goal, e.g medical domain
FOUNDATIONS OF AI
Philosophy Knowledge Rep., Logic, Foundation of AI (is
AI possible?)
Maths Search, Analysis of search algos, logic

Economics Expert Systems, Decision Theory, Principles

of Rational Behavior
Psychology Behavioristic insights into AI programs

Neuroscience (Brain Learning, Neural Nets

Science)
Control theory and Information Theory & AI, Entropy, Robotics
Cybernetics
Computer Sc. & Engg. Systems for AI

Linguistics Verbal behavior ,computational linguistics or

NLP
PHILOSOPHY

1. Can formal rules be used to draw valid conclusions?

2. How does the mind arise from a physical brain?
3. Where does knowledge come from?
4. How does knowledge lead to action?
PHILOSOPHY

• Logic: Rational part of the mind

• Aristotle formulated a precise set of laws governing the Rational Part of the
mind.
• Syllogisms: used for Reasoning (eg, Deduction).
• Allow one to generate conclusions (mechanically), from initial premises.
• Deduction/Deductive Reasoning: If A> B, and B>C, then we can deduce that
A>C
• Ahmed is a man. All men are mortal. Therefore, by deductive reasoning:
Ahmed is mortal
PHILOSOPHY
• Mechanical calculators were made 2000 years later
• Speculation: machines might not just calculate, but actually be able to
think and act on their own
• Purely physical conceptualization of the mind means that it has no
room for free will
• Physical mind has No Free Will: So, if it is governed by physical laws
then it has no more free will, just like, say, a rock “deciding” to fall to
the ground.
PHILOSOPHY
Rationalism
• Reasoning: importance of Power of reasoning in understanding the
world
• Dualism: (Descartes) Part of human mind (or soul) exempt from
physical laws
• Materialism: Brain under laws of physics constitutes the mind. Free
will is simply the way that the perception of available choices appears
to the choosing entity.
PHILOSOPHY

• Induction: Generalization from a small set of facts to a wider set.

General rules are acquired by exposure to repeated associations
between their elements. Moves from specific instances into
generalized conclusion.
• Conclusion: In general, all monkeys eat bananas (Durkin pp 92)
• Example: This marble from the bag is black. That marble from the bag
is black. A third marble from the bag is black. Therefore all the
marbles in the bag are black.
MATHS

1. What are the formal rules to draw valid conclusions?

2. What can be computed?
3. How to reason with uncertain Information ?

Boolean Logic/Propositional logic: The leap to a formal science requires

a level of mathematical formalization in three fundamental areas: logic,
computation, and probability (uncertainty).
MATHS: INCOMPLETENESS THEOREM
1. Limits of Logic Computation: There are limitations on Deduction. Not
everything can be computed logically.
2. Some functions on integers cannot be represented by an Algorithm,
i.e., these functions cannot be computed. (elementary theory of
natural numbers, Peano arithmetic pp8)
3. Turing: Computable functions. Some functions cannot be computed
by the Turing machine.
4. No machine can tell in general whether a given program will return
an answer on a given input or will it run forever.
MATHS: TRACTABILITY
1. Intractable Problems: Exponential growth
2. Divide the problem
3. NP Completeness: How to identify Intractable problems
4. Work on AI has helped explain why some instances of NP-complete
problems are hard, while others are easy.
ECONOMICS

Economics: Expert Systems, Decision Theory, Principles of rational

behavior.
Satisficing: making decisions that are good enough
PSYCHOLOGY

Economics: Expert Systems, Decision Theory, Principles of rational behavior.

Satisficing: making decisions that are good enough (pp10)
Psychology:
Neuroscience/Brain Science
How do brains process information?
Control theory and cybernetics
CS and engineering: :Systems for AI
NEUROSCIENCE

Neuroscience/Brain Science
How do brains process information?
CONTROL THEORY AND CYBERNETICS

• How can artifacts operate under their own control?

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

CS and Engineering: :Systems for AI

How can we build an efficient computer?
LINGUISTICS

• How does language relate to thought?